Wisconsin judge strikes down Walker’s collective-bargaining law

posted at 8:01 pm on September 14, 2012 by Allahpundit

We’ve been here before, remember? A left-wing judge struck down the law on a procedural technicality in May of last year. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a month later. Bet heavily that this will be reversed too, just because I suspect America’s not quite ready to start throwing up constitutional roadblocks to fiscal reforms while states are already teetering on a fiscal cliff. Especially after Wisconsin held an election just three months ago where voters had a chance to effectively decide that issue.

The law remains largely in force for state workers, though a federal judge struck down part of that section of the law as well earlier this year. But for city, county, and school workers the decision by Dane County Judge Juan Colas returns the law to its status before Walker signed his law in March 2011.

Colas ruled that the law violated workers’ constitutional rights by making denying to union workers certain powers available to their nonunion counterparts. The decision could still be overturned on appeal – the Supreme Court has already restored the law once in June 2011 after it was blocked by a different Dane County judge earlier that year…

School districts and local officials will have to return to the bargaining table with their workers in a much more significant way. The decision raises a host of questions about changes in pay, benefits and work rules that have taken place in the meantime while bargaining was essentially dead.

Under Walker’s law, both the state and local governments were prohibited from bargaining over anything besides a cost of living salary adjustment. Other issues such as health benefits, pensions, workplace safety and other work rules were strictly off limits.

The decision’s here. The court concedes that there’s no constitutional right to collective bargaining; the argument is that the state discriminated against union employees, which makes it an equal protection issue. Typically in equal-protection jurisprudence, governments are given wide latitude in economic matters; go figure that Wisconsin wasn’t given that latitude here. But then, the legal reasoning isn’t important. The point of the ruling is to snatch victory on collective bargaining for the left from the jaws of defeat after defeat after defeat. Maybe that’s how union rights will be handled from now on — as with abortion rights, they’ll be yanked out of the hands of voters and kept safe from the grubby hands of democracy. A savvy move. And in the spirit of fire-with-fire, I guess it’s now time for more conservative judges to start thinking seriously about revisiting Lochner. Long live rule by judiciary!

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If this stands, maybe it’s time for states to reconsider education funding. If a state cannot set the rules for bargaining for wages with teachers, then maybe the state should not be hiring teachers. Go to an all charter & voucher system and divest themselves of the public school system.

The ruling will be overturned. Meanwhile, the issue is back in the oress in Wisconsin and Wisconsin voters can be reminded again why they should vote for candidates willing to stand up to public unions.

Coca Colas is just a hack District Court judge appointed by the former Democratic Governor Jim Doyle. The case will end up in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where the GOP has the majority, and the maybe go all the way to the US Supreme Court.

If judges can just overturn the voter as they just did here and California that means they can overturn any vote by the people. Then why vote if your vote is irrelevant??? So if Romeny wins can a judge just overturn and make Obama the president again???? Not by the constitution no. So, what makes this any different? Nothing

Bet heavily that this will be reversed too, just because I suspect America’s not quite ready to start throwing up constitutional roadblocks to fiscal reforms while states are already teetering on a fiscal cliff the GOP controls the Wisconsin state supreme court

That is the only reason. And you can bet that if the left can pursue this matter through the Federal courts to get it overturned once again, they’ll do so.

The will of the people has nothing to do with it. The judiciary has completely hijacked American law, and whoever controls the judiciary controls policy.

If Wisconsin manages to have an R House and Senate in January move 1 when the bodies meet should be advancing legislation to turn this state into a Right to Work state and crush these bastiches with the most powerful hammer available.

I think the judge’s obvious intent was to help drive the D turnout by giving the public sector workers a thing to rally around.

Too bad for them, most of the public sector worker’s hopes have been based on illogical reasoning and flawed premises. They probably think this ruling will stand for whatever reason, and are convinced of it.

The ruling will be overturned. Meanwhile, the issue is back in the oress in Wisconsin and Wisconsin voters can be reminded again why they should vote for candidates willing to stand up to public unions.

The ruling will be overturned. Meanwhile, the issue is back in the oress in Wisconsin and Wisconsin voters can be reminded again why they should vote for candidates willing to stand up to public unions.

I live and work in Dane County… this is the standard loony view of this area. Dane county thinks that they know what everyone in the rest of the state needs, kind of the same way they believe that when they pass gas it’s just a rainbow flying out of their A$$!

Actually this ruling doesn’t even make legal sense under the equality act. Individually the members should be able to negotiate their health care or get the SAME health care plans the individual hires get. Collective bargaining is a leveraging of rights… Not a subset of them. If the state was offering unionized teachers health plan a but individuals health care plan b that’d be an issue. But I highly doubt that was the case.

This is good for us! It helps Romney in Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Supreme Court is going to overturn this dufus judge anyway. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has already had to overturn other leftist judges who struck down other parts of this law.

This is good for us! It helps Romney in Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Supreme Court is going to overturn this dufus judge anyway. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has already had to overturn other leftist judges who struck down other parts of this law.

thuja on September 14, 2012 at 8:27 PM

Which is why Prosser’s victory over Kloppenburg in the WI SC race last year was that important.

Which is why Prosser’s victory over Kloppenburg in the WI SC race last year was that important.

A quick recap on how awfully close we were to Fluke-ing it away.

Myron Falwell on September 14, 2012 at 8:37 PM

Kloppy wasn’t fit to judge a contest at a county fair. It’s scary how someone that radical and moronic was SOOOO close to becoming a state supreme court justice, which would have likely been a path ultimately for SCOTUS via some libtard president!

As much as I’d liket to slap that judge silly, I think this will help turnout for R&R, too.
Not only alot of renewed anger in the righties, BUT I also think there HAS to be some newly right-thinking rank & file union members who’ve realized that Walker’s (R&R’s) tactics are working well in the state. Even if they can’t be very vocal about it, they might just pull the R lever, behind the curtain.

If this stands, maybe it’s time for states to reconsider education funding. If a state cannot set the rules for bargaining for wages with teachers, then maybe the state should not be hiring teachers. Go to an all charter & voucher system and divest themselves of the public school system.
AZfederalist on September 14, 2012 at 8:05 PM

.
I’m am sooo with you, on that.

But I also know that the attempt at such changes will bring us a step closer to provoking a civil war here, as well.

The Public Schools are the indoctrination centers of the Progressives, for our country’s youth.

Another example on what why liberals have been working for years for. This is exactly they way they wanted it. They know that many of the ideas they have would never get enough support…. so they go the judicial route so things exactly like this will happen.

As much as I’d liket to slap that judge silly, I think this will help turnout for R&R, too.
Not only alot of renewed anger in the righties, BUT I also think there HAS to be some newly right-thinking rank & file union members who’ve realized that Walker’s (R&R’s) tactics are working well in the state. Even if they can’t be very vocal about it, they might just pull the R lever, behind the curtain.

I think there are some smart cheeseheads, really I do.
;-)

pambi on September 14, 2012 at 8:54 PM

Im a union worker and I approve this message… actually a majority of workers at my place want our union gone… which has lost support over the years, and now its more or less 0-10 year workers dont care to much for it, where the 11+ year people are the ones clinging to the union….

Of course, we have a two tier contract which got done when they went on strike 10 years or so ago… so yeah, not even in our union everyone does not have the same contract…. “they” get up to 6 weeks vacation after 20, and those of us that that started after that contract have to work 20 for 4 and that is the max, along with “they” get 2 floating holidays, we get none.

If this stands, maybe it’s time for states to reconsider education funding. If a state cannot set the rules for bargaining for wages with teachers, then maybe the state should not be hiring teachers. Go to an all charter & voucher system and divest themselves of the public school system.

AZfederalist on September 14, 2012 at 8:05 PM

I’m am sooo with you, on that.

But I also know that the attempt at such changes will bring us a step closer to provoking a civil war here, as well.

The Public Schools are the indoctrination centers of the Progressives, for our country’s youth.

After Roberts’ ruling on HusseinCare and now this one, as well as others, does anyone still question Newt’s idea of hauling these idiots in front of Conress to have them point out exactly where Constitution says what they say.

e If WI has the capacity to impeach judges, I’d start exploring that avenue at the first opportunity.

This judge doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of respect, or regard, for his state’s Supreme Court decisions.

CPT. Charles on September 14, 2012 at 8:51 PM

We have a very low hurdle to initiate recall here in the Land of Cheese and Beer, but since this is a Dane County judge there is zero likelihood that this particular hack judge could be tossed out. Dane County is to the left of Marx.
The only way this guy would lose a recall is if he had ruled against the commies. As corrupt and bereft of reason his ruling is, it was a simple measure of feathernesting and self-preservation on his part. Any ruling otherwise and this corrupt pos would be out on his arse.

We have a lot of Charter schools here in S.AZ. seems folks are willing to pay to escape.

wolly4321 on September 14, 2012 at 9:22 PM

Charter schools are free for students, paid for by tax dollars on a per student basis. They are enjoined from teaching religion and some other restrictions. Arizona also has a tax credit program that allows people to donate up to $1000 per married filing jointly return to a private school. The money is used for scholarships for students attending private schools. That $1000 is a tax credit, not a deduction, so it reduces your taxes by $1000 on your state return and is a charitable deduction on your federal return. This is not a giveaway to private schools, what it does is reduce the amount of money the state has to spend on public education because it offloads a significant number of students from the public school system. Since private schools are more efficient, this is a money saving activity for the state.

As a Wisconsinite, this pisses me off at the state level, but it also pisses me off at the federal level.

This is just ONE MORE REASON we have to get these biased left-wingers out of office come this November. Look what happens when they get to appoint the judges; freedom truly dies. This kind of thing takes a person’s vote and smashes it on the garbage can that is judicial tyranny.

Hopefully more people, in the middle or even on the other side of the aisle, are getting as sick of this sort of thing as we are.

So how long can this game be played? Is there any definitive ending to these rulings or is it just an endless circle jerk of threading legal technicalities ad infinitum.

rickyricardo on September 14, 2012 at 9:38 PM

This game is being played once again, not coincidentally I feel, just in time for the Presidential election heating up. Another distraction from Obama’s non-record, and another way the libs can try to discourage us into thinking all is lost, so we may as well not vote come this November since our votes don’t mean anything anyway.

Under Walker’s law, both the state and local governments were prohibited from bargaining over anything besides a cost of living salary adjustment. Other issues such as health benefits, pensions, workplace safety and other work rules were strictly off limits.

I pray that Walker’s actions don’t force Wisconsin into the blue electoral column. It’s way more important to get Obummer out of the White House than it is to further Walker’s political career.

Taxpayers, Parents and Administrators have seen the corruption in WEA Trust, and got an 18 month long glimpse of how the schools can be improved. This will not be a popular decision here in WI, and will definitely increase turnout for Romney/Ryan.

The DPI (Dept of Public Instruction) has new rules for student goals – growth goals, not achievement goals – which means that every student needs to be learning.

As I explained in the Chicago teachers’s strick post, the new testing allows admins to parse data and clearly identify poor teachers. Union rules or not, admins have to see the value in purging their system of the bad teachers and they won’t let this slip away.